Frank Riikaard will be leaving Barcelona as their manager, and is to be replaced by Josep Guardiola this summer.
Deco – is he too old and injury prone?
Seems like it is a good time to have a bit of a clear out at Barcelona, and there may be a few players Newcastle could persuade to come to Tyneside.
The big name that is leaving in the summer is Deco, and while the Brazilian-born Portugal International turns 31 in August, he could make a big impact to Newcastle’s midfield, in terms of creativity.
One player we have been repeatedly interested in is Iceland International Eidur Gudjohnsen, who has struggled to make any impact at the Nou Camp, since his £8M move from Chelsea two years ago.
These last two seasons have really halted Eidur’s career dead in the water, and it has turned out it was a bad career move for him, to move to Barcelona, whether he admits it or not.
But he is a proven Premiership player with Chelsea, and we think he could do a job for us up front, and he certainly scores a lot more goals than Alan Smith, that’s for sure.
Keegan has been set the target by Newcastle’s hierarchy, of breaking into the league’s top-six and 5th place is our official target, and it seems Kevin believes the Portugal international could add much-needed creativity in the Newcastle midfield.
Deco has admitted his days at the Catalan club are numbered, and said a move to the Premiership League is a possibility.
He was quoted last week as saying:
“The club spoke with my representative and I know that there are offers, I am going to negotiate.”
“I don’t want to leave Barca with problems.” “Barca people come and go, but the club continues, and me going is not the end of the world.”
“I want to be where I am wanted and when things end up this way, it is best that you go. I thank the club for being honest with me.”
“I will go to England or Italy, I am sure. I won’t stay in Spain because the only club that is of Barca’s level is Madrid and I would never go to Madrid.”
But we think it will be a long shot for Newcastle to convince Deco to come to Newcastle.
We are not exactly a big club right now (note the current tense), and we cannot offer him European Football next season, so we think he may end up elsewhere, if there is interest shown by the bigger clubs.
This summer may be difficult for us in our recruitment, but we really believe we can do very well next season, and next year at this time should be a lot easier for us – to attract the world’s top talent.
Deco has also struggled with injuries recently, and that will hardly improve as he gets older. In what was another off season for Barcelona, as the club were 18 points behind their rivals Real Madrid, Deco made just 14 starts.
And the last thing we want at the club next season are more injury-prone players.
We already have one with our current creative midfielder Emre, whose last game for Newcastle was the beginning of February – but he’ll still be playing for Turkey in Euro-2008.
Well – what do you think?
Comments very welcome.
84 comments so far
Ian
May 18, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Comment #81Where is Anelka going???
Bots
May 18, 2008 at 11:36 AM
Comment #82I think I’d be over the moon if he came, but if he chooses to go elsewhere he’s an injury prone has-been.
Doesn’t that sum it up?
clinta
May 18, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Comment #83you mentioned the right player ed, he’d be a new emre if we signed him, hope it doesn’t happen,
i’m also glad that MA’s policies will stop players like eider from coming to us too, a couple years ago yes, not now!
Dennis Wisearse
May 19, 2008 at 7:39 AM
Comment #84Seems like he wants to go to a big club in either italy or england, with european qualification, so i doubt newcastle is even on his list of desired clubs. If he wouldn’t play for Villarreal or Atletico M. (who are both qualified for Champions Cup) then why would he want to come to us?